Blog Archives

Charting the sublime, Kim Griggs

The Wide White Page: Writers Imagine Antarctica ed Bill Manhire Victoria University Press, $34.95, ISBN 0864734859 When the explorers in John Martin Leahy’s “In Amundsen’s Tent” scrambled into the tent the Norwegian left after his foray to the South Pole,

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Poetry, Review, Short stories

The wit, the cook and the poet, Chris Else

On Writing Hit Songs Simon Morris Four Winds Press, $14.95, ISBN 0958237573 Biography of a Local Palate David Burton Four Winds Press, $14.95, ISBN 0958237581 Under the Influence Bill Manhire Four Winds Press, $14.95, ISBN 0958237565 Reviewing three books at

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Posted in Essays, Non-fiction, Review

Stone upon stone, David Eggleton

Collected Poems 1967-1999 Bill Manhire Victoria University Press, ISBN 086473411 (paperback), $34.95 ISBN 0864734212 (hardback) $49.95 In this Collected Poems, the private universe of Bill Manhire is made readily available to his ever-increasing audience. But it may take years and many readings

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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Famous last words, Bill Manhire

  They knew how to die in the old Icelandic sagas. In Grettir’s Saga a man called Atli Asmundarson gets a spear through the stomach. He looks down in surprise, and then – in the middle of a 10th-century wilderness

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Posted in Imprints

Babes and Biggles, Louise Wrightson

Spectacular Babies ed Bill Manhire HarperCollins, $24.95, ISBN 1869503775 Boys’ Own Stories: Short Stories by New Zealand Men ed Graeme Lay Tandem Press, $24.95, ISBN 1877178691 Five years ago, I remember jumping up and down in frustration in front of

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Short stories

“Aha – data reduction!” James Brown

James Brown interviews Bill Manhire James Brown (JB): Accessible but elusive. A lot of people seem to like your poetry, but find it difficult. How conscious are you, when you write, of an audience? In other words, do you ever

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Posted in Comment

“The muddled dailiness of things”, Stuart Murray

Doubtful Sounds: Essays and Interviews Bill Manhire Victoria University Press, $34.95, ISBN 0 86473 370 4 The Canadian poet Douglas Barbour once wrote that Bill Manhire’s poetry displays a “duplicitous unwillingness to guarantee anything”, a feature he felt to be

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Posted in Essays, Literature

How to keep your secret, Ken Arvidson

What to call your child Bill Manhire Godwit, $29.95, ISBN 1 86962 044 5 This attractive volume marks the end of Bill Manhire’s two-year term as the Te Mata Estate Poet Laureate. Because he has lived the role out so

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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Of ice-blinks, blackbirds and ikebana, John Allison

Homelight Nigel Brown, Bill Manhire, Chris Orsman Pemmican Press, $12.00 ISBN 0 47305149 4 13 Ways Harry Ricketts Pemmican Press, $14.95 ISBN 0 47304881 7 Natsukashii Ingrid Horrocks Pemmican Press, $14.95 ISBN 0 47305139 7 Black South Chris Orsman Pemmican

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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

A place to go ‘where your life, Alan Riach

Mutes & Earthquakes: Bill Manhire’s Creative Writing Course at Victoria University ed Bill Manhire Victoria University Press, $34.95, ISBN 0 86473 318 6 In his 1965 book on Picasso, John Berger said: “Events in our century occur on a global scale.

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Posted in Literature, Short stories
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